106 Degrees

Spent the weekend with some San Francisco friends at Don Pedro Reservoir, and holy snakes that is some hot weather. The kind of heat that leads 'Mericans to sit in parked cars with the engine on, blasting the AC, while camping. I do believe that is the solution to global warming, or at least it's a step in the right direction.

These pictures were mostly taken for the pleasure of D*Pow, who walks that thin line between car-free biking lifestyle and roosting the shit out of a mudhole on a dune buggy.
Making sure your dirt bike makes that angelic "BRAAAAAAAAP" sound. Over and over and over again. Tell you what, the BRAAP SHOP certainly put Hilmar on the map.


I would have loved to get a pic of the mulleteers at the next site over who owned this boat....but I also didn't feel like getting beaten to death 4 times for my troubles. Imagine the 80's and the dudes who ran game in the auto shop classes. Dan, I told them that you were interested in just such a boat, but it sounds like they need at least 2 of your Quads and and a sack of ditch weed in order to seal the deal.

Un bon croquis vaut mieux qu'un long discours

Leaving Terrific Grove

Nothing like working yourself sillier for 6 months to earn a nice vacation, so off to Boise for 5 days and Portland for 5 more I went. Good times were had, including:

-A certain Mitch Giggles Ph. D helping to accelerate a near-streetfight by giving a bunch of cokey Boise residents Bruce Lee's patented thumbs-down to the face move. The bad guys left in handcuffs and our crew were left confused why the dudes felt so keen on staring down and getting in the face of a bunch of big ol' Wisconsin rowing and rugby dudes. A near miss for the next day's groom.


-a couple of days riding on the 8th street trails...Sidewinder and Crestline ring some bells. Hard climbs and fast descents, not so easy to climb when the little ring had a one chainsuck per revolution ratio. Didn't realize it had a gnarly tooth until I was done, so it goes when you borrow bikes.

-whitewater rafting on the Payette. Looks like I'm about to get clocked with paddle here:

-hiking at Eagle Creek to Tunnel Falls trail in Portland:







The night before Breezy had described the trail and drop-off as "precipitous". About 2 seconds later I had proclaimed Eagle Creek to be a figment of his imagination, and that it was actually just the name of some chewing tobacco he had seen. Turns out we were both right.

-Mountain biking at Browns Camp. I was too busy crashing, near-crashing, clipping out like a yellow-bellied sapsucker, having my rear tire slide 90 degrees from the trail off of wet roots, etc. to take any trail pictures. It was fun, but might be more my speed when it was drier rather than after the rain. Or maybe I just need to harden up. As a wiser man than myself once said, "opinions vary".

Did get a group pic at the waterfalls during the ride:

Xtra Cycle...killah! Norman Bates

3 years in the making, we finally built up the Xtracycle frame that Katie received for turning English into French for Planet Bike. The bike was purchased off of CL for a smooth $150, so all in all a pretty cheap way to conjure up a cargo bike.

I gotta admit, slaving over a hot Specialized Crossroads brought me back to the pseudo-halcyon days of being a bike assembler at Budget, before Specialized decided they didn't want bike shops to sell their stuff if they weren't exclusive. The setup was hard to beat, separate from the retail stores so we could be as faded as we wanted to be while earning some decent dimes. Don't get much chance at the current job to blast Dr. Octagon and crank on canned beer. Then again, I can die happy knowing I'll never touch another Fuji "Marlboro Miles" Folding bike (collectible!), BikeE recumbent, or Raleigh M30 16" Ladies bike, of which the owner got a deal on several hundred.

Here's the (nearly) finished product:

Phil Collins is a hack

but Levon will set you straight.

ISO Free charter jet to Madison.....

....last Sunday of every month only

The boys of the abandoned building are still doing it live. I'd pay big money at that kissing booth:

image courtesy of Djonnymac; that flutter in your heart courtesy of ZRCycles